The Internet has become a medium for the display and playback of various forms of content objects. As used herein, “content object” can refer to digital text (such as a document, a poem, a book, an article, a spreadsheet, and the like), a digital image (such as a digital version of a photograph, a painting, a drawing, a computer-made image, and the like), digital video (such as a digital feature film, a home-video or other amateur-captured video, a music video), a digital sound recording (such as a digital song, a speech, or any other audio clip), a digital animation (such as a .GIF animation, a cartoon, still-motion video, and the like), or any other form of content that is displayed, viewed, or played on a user device over the internet.
Content hosting services on the Internet allow users to access content on the content hosting services for display and playback. Content hosting services can allow users to upload content objects to the content hosting services. The content objects uploaded by users may be user-generated content objects, such as images of real-world physical artwork created by the user or images including digital artwork created by the user. Content hosting services can also retrieve content objects from other entities, such as professional movie studios, professional music studios, libraries, and the like.
Once content is stored at a content hosting service, users can browse and view or play the content. In order to aid a user in viewing content of interest to the user, a content hosting service can recommend various content to the user. Selecting relevant content to recommend to a user is very challenging, particularly in the field of digital art, as a user's visual tastes can vary in a difficult-to-predict way.